Everything done in a mix of medieval blues
and browns. Many textures are familiar from
either the standard Quake texes, or some
other popular texture sets like IKBlue.
There were a couple I didn't recognize,
but they all fitted together well to describe
a kind of runic maze feel.
The layout of the level is very complex,
but the author guides you from one part
to the next with ease. I only got lost once,
because I though the hallway I was supposed
to progress sown was a dead end (the back
was was dark so I figured that it was a
cubby-hole). There aren't really any impressive
structures, but the whole design is clean
and well made, especially the multiple areas
where you find yourself back in or next
to somewhere you'd been earlier.
[Kona] has seen fit to include a number
of custom monsters in this one, with mixed
results. The axemen of doom return from
Coven of Ebony, and they fit in with the
theme well, and at the pace they move at,
provide a good pressure opponent. Some of
the HellKnights have custom skins, these
guys are a little harder than normal, otherwise
no difference. Same for the reskinned Knights,
again using a skin seen before in CoE. There's
also some nail-firing ogres that wear the
boss-ogre skin from one of the mission packs.
These are possibly my least favourite of
the 'modified' monsters, because they dont
just fire nails, oh no. They jump and move
at insane speeds too.
In addition to the modified monsters, there
are two new ones, also seen in previous
maps. Neither fit well into the theme of
the map. One is the Snakeman, wielding twin
uzis. The other is the Scorpion from Scourge
of Armagon, a monster which I really hate,
and again doesn't fit into the theme.
Early on, I found health especially sparse,
and there are only a very few armours available.
As you progress though, you start to get
more and more ammo, although health is still
encountered infrequently. All weapons are
present and correct except for the Thunderbolt,
and the weapons are awarded in the usual
progressive style, with the exception of
the super-shotgun, which you start off with.
The first third of the map is fairly tense,
when you are coming up against fairly tough
monsters with little health and ammo. However,
when the ammo starts to flow in the remainder
of the map, things start to heat up and
the level becomes immense fun, tackling
the gobs and gobs of monsters that are thrown
at you with the plentiful nails and rockets.
The ending is a good, but a little less
health might have made it a bit more of
a challenge.
Tense to start with, then turns into a
great blast-fest. Get it.
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